China Favors Hawaii Site For Space Venture With U.s. Firm

June 17, 1986|By United Press International.

PEKING — China, which has signed its first agreement with a U.S. firm to put two satellites aloft within three years, said Monday it favors an American proposal for a joint commercial space center based in Hawaii.

Peking officials and representatives of New York-based Teresat Inc. announced the signing of an agreement Sunday to use Chinese rockets and launch facilities to redeploy two faulty satellites recovered in 1984 by the U.S. space shuttle Discovery.

A joint press release said the agreement, the first formal launch contract signed by China and a foreign firm, calls for launching one satellite aboard a Chinese Long March-3 rocket in the last quarter of 1987 and the other six months later.

The two satellites, the Palapa B and Westar 6, will be launched from China`s Xichang space center in central Sichuan province.

In another development, the official Peking Review magazine said Monday an unprecedented proposal to use Chinese Long March rockets to launch American satellites from Hawaii came from the giant Hughes Aircraft Corp., which makes most U.S. satellites.

The magazine said the Hughes proposal calls for the construction of a Sino-U.S. space center on one of the Hawaiian islands. It did not say which one.

It said the proposal was presented by Hughes Aircraft President Paul Visher and has received a positive response from the China Great Wall Industry Corp., the state enterprise which handles business matters for Peking`s fledgling commercial space program.

The plan calls for a ``satellite launching ground for long-term cooperation, to be set up on a Hawaiian island where Chinese carrier rockets and launching technology shall be exploited to launch American civilian satellites`` in cooperation with Hughes, it said.

Peking Review said the proposal has received ``positive response`` from the Chinese and negotiations between both sides are expected to be held soon. Western diplomats said the plan could attract customers reluctant to have their satellites launched in communist China.

With both the U.S. and West European space programs grounded, China has recently moved aggressively into the commercial satellite launching market by offering rates 10 percent to 15 percent lower than its competitors.